Rissling just off the podium in fourth

Kaillie Humphries continued her dominance at the Whistler Sliding Centre on Saturday, winning her fourth consecutive women's two-man bobsleigh event at the site.

The two-time defending Olympic gold medallist hasn't lost at the track since 2010.

Humphries and new brakeman Cynthia Appiah bested the Austrian sled of Christina Hengster by 0.24 seconds and the American team of Jamie Greubel Poser and Lauren Gibbs by 0.33 seconds. Canadian Alyssia Rissling, in her second World Cup race, took fourth with Melissa Lotholz, 0.59 seconds off the pace.

Humphries and Appiah got off to a great start, as Humphries broke her own track start record of 5.11 seconds, decreasing it to 5.09 on her first run. The American sled of Elana Meyers Taylor and Kehri Jones brought it down further, to 5.06, a couple sleds later, but they crashed and Meyers Taylor crossed the line without Jones in the sled, negating the run.

With solid competition on off on Saturday, Humphries was thrilled to show well in front of the home crowd.

"Win or loss, I'm just really happy with how Cynthia and I performed," Humphries said. "I had two good runs from the driving perspective. We pushed really well with the start record. Overall, that's more what I'm excited about."

While it was Appiah's two-man debut, she has raced in the four-man with Humphries in the past.

Humphries, who raced with Lotholz last year, said Appiah was the brakeman to put her in the best position to win this time, and the rookie came through.

"At the end of the day, the person that will be in the back of my sled will be the fastest person. Cynthia had the fastest singles (time) and her and I had the fastest team push during team testing in October, therefore it was warranted that she got the first World Cup. With her performance today, she'll continue to keep getting races," Humphries said. "Every time we wear that maple leaf, we represent our country. We want to provide Canada with the best potential at achieving greatness."

Rissling, who had previously raced at a World Cup in Calgary in 2014, was happy to show so well in her most recent opportunity.

"This was my first World Cup. There was one I got thrown into a couple years ago, but this was my first official one. I felt like we made a statement that we're here. It feels pretty good," she said. "It wasn't unrealistic to think about Top 6, but to be a couple tenths out of third place, that's pretty sweet."

It was the first race together for her and Lotholz, who have only practiced together for a week.

"We wanted to make sure for a home race, we had the best results possible, so it was very exciting to team up and to be able to get fourth place, it's amazing. This is exactly why we teamed up," Lotholz said.